Be Friendly to Customer Service

PRO TIP: be friendly to customer service folks. A few weeks ago I had a weird issue pop up in @mailchimp so I chatted with a friendly customer support person. I was nice & he was helpful & after we finished the chat and he resolved my issue he sent me a link to order a prize! And now I can’t wait for winter (or to see if norm will let me put it on him tonight after daycare…)

Update – he did:

So what are the marketing lessons to be learned here?

If you’re in customer service – kill them with kindness. I’m a paying MailChimp customer and most of my clients are not. And my question was for an account that’s not paying for this technical support. But they answered my question anyway. They could have been an asshole about it, but they were awesome. And I was rewarded for my gratefulness with a new winter hat to terrorize my dog with.

If you’re speaking to customer service: BE NICE. It’s not their fault something happened to you. It’s probably some glitch in code somewhere way down the line that they’re in no way responsible for. Plus – if you’re nice you could win a prize!

Empower your employees! I didn’t need a hat – or any free MailChimp swag. But I’m pretty excited for it! And now I’m writing a blog post singing their praises. Empower your team to reward your customers.

Dog’s in human clothing are always funny.

I hate when I get further by complaining to a company on social media than being able to handle it politely behind chat rooms. Start by being nice and polite. Yes, you can be super frustrated too. I often start out conversations (not the one with MailChimp) with “I’m super frustrated and I know it’s not your fault so I apologize if I accidentally yell or blame you for something outside your control.” That also helps put them at ease. They know they aren’t the villain in this story, but does the customer?

About Us

Yellow Dog Consulting is a sales and marketing firm located in Hillsboro, Oregon with clients throughout the Pacific Northwest. We work with small business owners who love what they do, but the sales and marketing part of their job sucks their will to live.